Quick Summary: A pinch of salty and a touch of sweetness women's fic

My Review: Love on the Menu by Mimi Deb is a dual perspective wo-fi ro with a lot of moving parts. Ultimately, it's a story about the ups and downs of life and the choices made in the process of living.

I found the book to be relationship heavy in an interesting way. It showed the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful that comes with interactions. It spoke of personal dreams and goals, as well as the challenges that are associated with those objectives.

With humor, frankness, and intimate expressions, this story revealed two plus characters who desired more. At times, the inclusion of secondary character lines read like overflow, although I'm sure it was meant to be texture for the story.

My Final Say: Readers who want a contemporary romance with a twist will find this book to fit the bill. It gets a slow ro grade, while at the same time, it gets a charm bomb mention from this reader.

Rating: 3/5
Recommend: +/-
Audience: A

Thanks to the author and to the publisher for making this work available via NetGalley. The words I have voluntarily shared are my own.

Love on the Menu is a delightful romance novel that will appeal to fans of the genre and anyone who appreciates a good love story. The author is a talented writer with a knack for creating memorable characters and compelling narratives, and this book is a testament to her skill and charm.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

Thank you to the author, Avon Books UK and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the premise behind this story, and there is a very sweet romance hidden in here. Unfortunately, it's well hidden in thickets of secondary characters that are completely extraneous, tangles of writing that is in desperate need of a good edit, and confusing switches of POV and strange transitions. The pacing is.so.excruciatingly.slow. and then again extremely rushed, which made for a bumpy read.

Love on the Menu is a cute romcom, marketed towards fans of Beth O’Leary, Ali Hazelwood and Emily Henry. As these are some of my favourite authors, I was eager to try this one.

The cover is absolutely adorable, and grabbed my attention immediately. I love the design, and full kudos go to the artist and all those involved.

The story itself is a very cute concept, and I thought it was an original idea. The execution was perhaps not to my taste, as I found my attention waning the longer the plot dragged out. I enjoyed the multiple POVs, and the characters themselves were decent. I just found that I couldn't root for them, and I wasn't too bothered by the romance within the story.

Overall it's a cute read, however I personally had issues with the pacing of the story, and wouldn't recommend it to fans of the previously mentioned authors.

Love on the Menu
Author: Mimi Deb
Avon Books UK, Avon

This new book by Mimi Deb is a romantic comedy that fans of this genre will want to check out. It is an original love story with a unique plot. Congratulations to Deb on her publication.

Thank you to Avon Books UK, Avon for the advance reader's copy of this book. My review is my own.

I loved the sypnosis of this, it had all the makings of a really interesting rom-com but I couldn't get into it.

It felt like it had too much going on in the first few pages and I had to go back to the sypnosis to even see who the main characters were suppose to be.

I hope it hits a better chord with someone else.

DNF at 10%.

I don't think this story was for me. The premise was really interesting and had a lot of promise, but the beginning failed to hook me.

The pacing was very jarring at times and the dialogue also felt a bit forced and out of the blue.

There were too many side characters being introduced at once. Gia and her 4 co-workers along with her boss. Then when it hit Ben's pov, I was excited to get a break, but then all his siblings got introduced and I lost track of who was who and what made each person different. It was hard to wrap my head around.

Gia was also very unlikeable and annoying at the start, especially with how she treated her 'best friend'. It gave me the ick.

Overall, I think this book had potential, but it lacked the immediate hook that made me want to read more.

I won't be posting this on any other platform because this book wasn't for me, and it deserves a chance to find it's audience.

I was sent this book by the publishers and was really looking forward to reading as I enjoy the odd romcom. This was a bit slow to get going and I wasn’t a great fan of the characters so I did struggle a bit. Some great humour in parts but I got lost along the way slightly and ended up not finishing. I might go back to try to read again at some point. If I do, I will update my review.

I won’t share on my social media channels as I don’t believe in sharing any negative reviews which might hurt sales for the author.

I actually really enjoyed this book so was surprised to see so many 3 star or lower reviews. Admittedly it did take me a while to get into but I really liked the characters. Both Gia and Ben were realistic in that they were flawed but also likeable. I enjoyed the parts with Ma and also when Ben was with his whole family. It did feel like it lost its way a little in the middle, and I feel like the Matt drama was a bit over exaggerated through the book. But it had a nice ending and I would like to read more about what happens next for Gia and Ben. Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

Not my kind of book I’m sorry to say. The beginning felt slow at first yet other parts felt rushed. The characters were interesting, each with their own back story. Ben felt misunderstood yet together with Gia they made the story for me. .

Love on the Menu had such an exciting premise! Sadly, the pacing and the writing style took away much of my enjoyment of the story and disappointed me. I am always looking for romances featuring a South-Asian female lead, so I was looking forward to enjoying this one. 2.5/5 stars from me.

Gia and Ben lacked the chemistry that their story needed. The foundation of their relationship started with a takeaway order and a new-year resolution list, which I have never seen featured in a book before. The letters they exchanged were adorable! I honestly kept reading the book because of those letters and Gia's comedic dialogue. The plot had so much potential, but it didn't shine through and lost its charm before I even reached the first half of the story. There were a lot of sub-plots thrown into the story, which was honestly, not properly fleshed out, just like the romance wasn't. The pacing was very off and confusing too. I umm, might be a bit dumb, but I thought that Ben was the delivery man, and then I realized he wasn't????

I am incredibly sad that I didn't enjoy this one.

Gia has a list of bold moves to change her life. Ben is stuck in a rut, hiding his dreams away. Joined as accidental pen-pals by fate (or a takeaway order), these two slowly get to know each other as they navigate their problems and transform their lives.

Though the story is intriguing and overall pretty cute, I feel like there was a lot of distractions and jumping around. The focus is heavy on some side characters, like Jay or Matt, while also only sharing very little about said characters and then suddenly a lot shared all at once. Aside from Gia and Ben, I didn’t get the impression that I got to know anyone.

Speaking of the main characters, Ben is a good one. He’s a little indecisive but clearly striving for better and moving forward, albeit at his own pace. I love his interactions with the people at the takeaway and his football team. Gia, on the other hand, kind of feels like a bit of a mess. A sweet, semi-optimistic character, but despite her list she tends to make all the same choices and wonder why nothing changes. There’s also a lot of alcohol interplay - Ben is a recovering alcoholic while Gia is almost always drinking - and that contrast is striking and somewhat uncomfortable.

The writing and the concept are good, and I do love the letters back and forth and the inclusion of Gia’s receipts. There are several scenes that I felt were very well done and I wanted them to stretch out further, but on the other hand there were some I thought could have been excluded entirely. Overall, this was not my type of story.

The blurb of the book sounded so promising but unfortunately I ended up dnfing this book. Unfortunately this wasn’t for me at all and I really do hate not finishing books. I was left disappointed and didn’t like the main characters at all.

I enjoyed this book overall. The storyline was a little slow to start, but due to some twists in the plots, it wasn't as predictable as i first thought it would be. I loved the development of the characters, the switch between the view points in the chapters. If you are looking for an easy, quick and curl up read, this fits the boat!

I loved the quirkiness of Gia's character, her overthinking was a quality that I found endearing. Really I really enjoyed Ben's character. The notes sent were great, but I wish we had seen more in-person interactions between the two, their dynamic was so sweet.

This book looked cute and it sounded right up my alley as a cute rom-com. Unfortunately, I did not finish. The writing style is not for me and it was really hard to follow along. I have it a fair start, but after several weeks of trying to get into, I had to put it down. I think the idea is cute, but the writing style could use a revamp. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the FMC and I was confused with who exactly Ben was.

I enjoyed the book's concept and how the story unfolded and the characters grew by themselves and together. A solid read and I recommend it. Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for this copy of the book for my honest review.

What I liked about this story was that it wasn’t as cliched and predictable as the title implies. Hearing the story from the perspective of Gina and Ben, you get an insight into their lives and the people in them, as well as how things start to overlap.

I was really looking forward to reading this book! The cover was absolutely adorable, the title was charming, and who doesn't love a good romance.

I found that I struggled to connect with the main characters. There was not much that happened throughout the book, but the story continued and felt as though it dragged on unfortunately. I struggled to finish this book unfortunately.

Everything about this book was promising: cute cover, appealing title, romantic story.

But it's a huge disappointment... I liked how the story started with Gia and Ben getting to know each other through notes slipped in Gia's orders from Ben. This was totally cute and a change from every other romance stories.

And yet the story dragged on for too long. Nothing major was happening. Every time Gia and Ben were on the verge of meeting, something would happen. It was a great idea for the first couple of times but in the end it was boring. As I was reading, I kept wondering where the author wanted to take us or the two 'lovers'.

Instead, the story remained flat and, little by little, Gia and Ben started to tedious. I just wanted the story to end. I no longer cared about their romance or anything else. I would have loved some spice, or at least a cute meeting between the two of them.

Besides, I didn't get why the secondary plots were there. A mention of them would have been better, but they took up chapters which in my opinion was useless.

I wanted to love this story and I thought I would. I kept hoping towards the end of the book but this was a huge disappointment for me.